How are you supposed to "write what you know" when

>>9172064
Think of Elliot Rodger. He was a borderline retarded autist who would ree out because people he considered more low status than him got laid and he couldn't. He knew nothing about human interaction or much else for that matter, all the little shit knew about was tfw no gf. But that's what he wrote about and he wrote probably the first important literary work of the 21st century as a result. So look to the Supreme Gentleman for inspiration

File: 412b5284cdfe63c2403395f68842ea4b.300x274x1.jpg (18KB, 300x274px) Image search: [Google]

18KB, 300x274px

Don't write about your hometown then.

>>9172064
Write what you know.

>>9172064
just be yourself

>>9172064
What do you know? Write about that. Do you know about farming? Write about that. Do you feel different from others in your small town? Write about it. Do you feel the need to impose your allegedly big vocabulary on others because you want to impress them with your knowledge and you're deep down pretty insecure? Write about it. You seem like a gigantic fucking faggot so you should write about what it's like to be one. Write about how you spend evenings browsing the internet, masturbate yourself to sleep, and the long nights of wrapping your arms around your lonely self to make it feel like someone is holding you. Write about how you tell yourself you'd be so much happier in a big city but when you picture yourself actually being in one you feel even more lonely because now you still have no friends, but millions of people are around you. Write about how ridiculous your insecurities and alleged flaws are when you finally stop caring about what other people think of you. Write about how the only people who talk to you are anonymous internet users who probably wouldn't talk to you if each other's identities were visible.

>>9172064
hmmm... okkkk..... you can.... write what you dont know.... I guess....

>>9172064
>How are you supposed to "write what you know" when you have a vocabulary two to three times the average size of the people you know?

I'm 100% sure this isn't true. even if it was...how would that hinder you from writing? Shouldn't that make you way better?

>How is dialogue supposed to happen when farmers talk like english grads?

Make it so they DON'T talk that way. Your welcome.

>And have no particular interest in farming, sports, or...

So...basically you don't know about very common things other people know about, like maybe....you're not as smart as you think you are. Maybe you're just a shut in little prick who avoids killing himself by saying he's smarter than everyone else, but would probably be dead if he had to cook his own meals for an entire day.

In which case, I can't imagine anything you write about is worth reading, because YOU DON'T FUCKING KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING.

try participating in life, getting out there, doing things. Then maybe you'll notice something worth writing then.

>>9172064
holy.....I want more........

>>9172064
To me, write what you know = draw from your experience. Tolkien wrote with an emotional authenticity that authors who ride on his coattails cannot hope to replicate. He lived through the Battle of the Somme. The pastoral ideal of the (and issues with) the Shire is also a subconscious byproduct of what he saw in wartime/dealt with firsthand in his own life. (At least, that's what I've noticed.)

tl;dr Write from your experience. Trauma, loss, injury, new experiences, etc. But don't feel restricted to them. Use them as a springboard.

>>9172100
That's the problem. Writing in the 1st person would result in pure self-indulgence, at least while I'm in this state of mind, and sticking to the rule of writing what I am familiar with. I'm very tempted to write a fantasy novel, but you immediately throw away any chance at literary respectability by doing that. I wonder if "write what you know" is a delibate or semi-conscious attempt to marginalise lower class writers. Rich writers can have their characters talk in an urbane, chatty way, while still getting their gold star for being a good contemporary realist writer.

>>9172117
Those things are all horrible. I'm not doing the Elliott Rodger thing and I'm not doing the John Steinbeck thing, so I'm out of options unless I change the rules.

>>9172342
>I'm 100% sure this isn't true.
It's not that difficult when you read books other than Tom Clancy or romance novels.
Most non-/lit/ people just stop encountering new words by age 25 or so.

It doesn't make me better at representing characters within the confines of realism. If I want a character to talk, the character talks. I suppose it's similar to dreaming. But the words it uses are from my vocabulary, not the setting it is supposed to inhabit.

>>9172723
>i'm out of options unless i change the rules

ok. ok. wow. just... ok. you are overcomplicating it way too much. just fucking write. what are you a fucking pussy? just start writing. here's something you may not have thought of: maybe you're just a fucking idiot. if "writing what you know" is too complicated of a sentence for you, yet you don't know how a fucking farmer would talk, wow. you are a gigantic fucking faggot

>>9172064
Have you tried using your imagination, my dear boy?

>>9172064
it's a meme, you pube muppet

I'm replying to a bait thread, but 'write what you know' doesn't literally mean 'write what you know', it means 'draw on your personal experiences and extrapolate them to fit what you're writing.'

You want to write the pain of a father after a child goes missing? Think about that time your beloved pet disappeared, and enhance it by ten. You want to write about the pain of being shot? Think about that time a shocking injury caused you pain, and enhance it by ten. You want to write about personal desolation, bone-crushing depression and loss? revise my diary desu.

It's not 'write what you know', it's 'write from what you know.'